Friday morning I got to sleep in (woot woot)! I had the day to laze in bed, watch movies, read, attempt to do some school work, and just relax from the craziness that was orientation. In the early afternoon, I showered and dressed for Shabbat and walked to HUC. We spent some time schmoozing before our text study program began. Our interns Brandon and Bess paired us off and gave us a text to study together. My partner Laura and I had a wonderful conversation sharing some personal details and exploring the text together. The text was about the scale of guilt and the scale of merit and how we judge each other and ourselves. It was fitting to examine this at the end of orientation as we begin our journey in Israel together as a class, building our own community. After we came back and discussed our chats, we started kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming Shabbat services). Rabbi Michael Marmur, the provost of HUC-JIR gave a d’var (sermon) on the words eich (how), eicha (another form of how), ayekkah (where are you) and orient. We studied some text and discussed how these words are all related to each other. How the word “how” can have different connotations depending on context and that you cannot really orient yourself if you don’t answer the eicha and ayekkah questions on many different levels. After services, I went home for some much needed sleep.
I woke up Saturday to go to services at HUC. HUC is the reform congregation in the area and is open to a larger community outside of HUC. Services were nice, although I think I like the more intimate services we have within our HUC community a little better. The melodies are more familiar and I don’t know, there’s just a connection I feel with my peers that seemed to be missing Saturday morning. Afterwards, a bunch of us went over to a friends’ apartment for a Shabbat lunch. We all brought food and had a wonderful time just being with each other. After lunch, I went home for an hour or so before I went to a different friends’ apartment for dinner. I really love those days where I don’t have to cook for myself. After dinner, we went to havdallah (separation) ceremony back at HUC. We had time to schmooze outside before we moved into the sanctuary for our “initiation.” Placed on each of our chairs was a tikkun (a copy of the Torah without English). We sat in two circles in silence as we started our ceremony with a wordless melody. At that point, the interns invited the few classmates who had prepared something to share what they had written about the week of orientation and the weeks to come at HUC-JIR in Jerusalem. After they had spoken, the floor opened up to anyone who wanted to share something. I was amazed at how many people spoke, and felt comfortable enough to open up the way they did with us. After the talking and a little singing in between, we started havdallah. This was such an incredible experience. I don’t really know how to put in words what I felt during those ten minutes. We all stood up and put our arms around each other and started singing the prayers. We were swaying and singing and performing the rituals of blessing the wine and smelling the spices and lighting the candle and hearing the sizzle of the candle being extinguished in the wine as Shabbat ends and the new week begins. The spirit, the soul, the emotion that existed in that room during that ceremony was so amazing. I closed my eyes and felt my heart lift up as my classmates were singing and praying. It was just so incredible to be in that moment. It is one that I will cherish for a very long time.
I woke up Saturday to go to services at HUC. HUC is the reform congregation in the area and is open to a larger community outside of HUC. Services were nice, although I think I like the more intimate services we have within our HUC community a little better. The melodies are more familiar and I don’t know, there’s just a connection I feel with my peers that seemed to be missing Saturday morning. Afterwards, a bunch of us went over to a friends’ apartment for a Shabbat lunch. We all brought food and had a wonderful time just being with each other. After lunch, I went home for an hour or so before I went to a different friends’ apartment for dinner. I really love those days where I don’t have to cook for myself. After dinner, we went to havdallah (separation) ceremony back at HUC. We had time to schmooze outside before we moved into the sanctuary for our “initiation.” Placed on each of our chairs was a tikkun (a copy of the Torah without English). We sat in two circles in silence as we started our ceremony with a wordless melody. At that point, the interns invited the few classmates who had prepared something to share what they had written about the week of orientation and the weeks to come at HUC-JIR in Jerusalem. After they had spoken, the floor opened up to anyone who wanted to share something. I was amazed at how many people spoke, and felt comfortable enough to open up the way they did with us. After the talking and a little singing in between, we started havdallah. This was such an incredible experience. I don’t really know how to put in words what I felt during those ten minutes. We all stood up and put our arms around each other and started singing the prayers. We were swaying and singing and performing the rituals of blessing the wine and smelling the spices and lighting the candle and hearing the sizzle of the candle being extinguished in the wine as Shabbat ends and the new week begins. The spirit, the soul, the emotion that existed in that room during that ceremony was so amazing. I closed my eyes and felt my heart lift up as my classmates were singing and praying. It was just so incredible to be in that moment. It is one that I will cherish for a very long time.
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